The Biggest Egg in the World

Hatched in Belfast by a clutch of poets, egged on by the Romanian poet, eight writers well up the poetry pecking order cooked up this book in tribute to the Romanian master chef. These are not hard-boiled translations but lightly scrambled versions, and if some seem flavoured with Heaney, Hughes, or Constantine, that's quite in keeping with the anarchic free-ranging spirit of Sorescu's comic genius. Our poets have poached freely from the original ingredients and whisked up a souffle of intriguing flavour and virtuosity. The translations are by Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, D.J. Enright, David Constantine, Michael Longley, Paul Muldoo, and William Scammell working with literal versions by Ioana Russell-Gebbett, and by Michael Hamburger.